The present invention relates to a container and child-resistant closure system intended for use with pharmaceuticals or other products which if improperly used pose a threat of injury or death.
Numerous designs exist within the prior art for child-resistant container closure systems. A particularly popular class of child-resistant closures are the so-called “squeeze and turn” closures, wherein a container cap must be manually deformed to release the cap from the container. As an example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,134,513 discloses a squeeze and turn cap which is compressed along a diameter to deform the cap and release it from the container. A first drawback associated with the prior art is that the degree of deformation required to release the cap is often significant, posing a substantial physical challenge, especially to persons with impaired hand strength. A second common drawback of the prior art is that the cap and container designs are frequently quite intricate, resulting in high manufacturing costs.